This is sort of a corporation I'm doing with Ita-chan5,credit to her, too. This fic is named after a Skillet song, there is no OC named Lucy, its just the name of a very emotional song. Enjoy.
Hutt River was extremely tired. More than he'd ever been after simply a normal day of work. His head hurt like a bitch. He pulled his car into the driveway of his farm, and got out, forgetting to lock it. He headed into the barn, greeted with the cries of his hungry pets.
Hutt River had (in pretty much everyone else's opinions) too many animals, simply because he never felt it was okay for an innocent creature to die simply because nobody cared about it, or even because he was hungry. He didn't care if others around him ate meat (Australia even made an effort to eat more meat when he was around), he was just against eating it himself.
His large collection of rescued animals included three stallions and six mares that he bought from a slaughterhouse truck, a sheep name Hufflepuff that New Zealand had originally planned to kill because she was a runt, a formally stray cat name Rosemarie and her five kittens, three Australian cattle dogs rescued from a puppy mill, an old goat with rage problems (Australia named him England #2), a potbellied pig smuggled out of a bad petting zoo, and a mental bilby that acted like a house cat.
Hutt River tossed a bale of hay and an apple to each horse, filled the food bowl in Hufflepuff and England #2's shared stall, fed the dogs some cheap beef, tossed some rotting vegetables in the pig pen, and put out some food for Rosemarie and her kits.
Flashfire, the oldest of the mares, dove at her unlatched stall door, causing it to fly open. She sprinted away.
"Shit." Muttered Hutt. "Figures this would happen today."
He saddled up Thunderbolt, one of the stallions, grabbed a lasso and rode off after the renegade mare. She was a jumping horse, and old Thunder was a racing horse, so it didn't take long to catch up to Flashfire and get the rope around her.
For some reason Hutt River decided to ride the mare over some old jumping logs. He ended up losing control half way through the first jump, and falling to the ground.
Well, that hasn't happened in a while. He thought to himself. The exhaustion and headache were now accompanied by chest pain and dizziness. He knew something was wrong, but wasn't really sure what. He went inside to where his cell phone had been charging and dialed Australia's number.
A few seconds later he heard Australia's ringtone from a phone on the table behind him. The caller ID read "Sarcastic brother #3".
Hutt River sighed. He decided to call Australia's home phone and at least leave a message. After a few rings the machine picked up.
Hutt River left his message. "Hello, OZ, I'm not sure if you're going to listen to this any time soon, but I think there's something wrong with me, so could you please come to my place soon. Bye."
He decided that some rest was probably the best thing, and laid down on the couch, giving into the void of sleep.